NEWS ROUNDUP
Tale of two warehouses ● I-1631 bound for ballot ● A quarter century
Tuesday, July 3, 2018
A TALE OF TWO WAREHOUSES
EDITOR’S NOTE — There’s only one way to get the kind of respect on the job that you need to fight oppressive working conditions: join together with your co-workers and form a union! Contact a union organizer today to find out how you can stand together and negotiate a fair return for your work.
THIS WASHINGTON
► In today’s Spokesman-Review — Carbon fee initiative likely headed for Washington’s November ballot — Initiative 1631, which would establish a fee on fossil fuels to raise money for clean energy projects, seems headed for Washington’s November ballot as supporters from around the state turned in hundreds of thousands of signatures Monday and expect another delivery of petitions on Friday.
MORE coverage from the Associated Press, Seattle Times, and The Stranger.
EDITOR’S NOTE — Although more than 60 percent of union delegates from across the state voted to support I-1631 at the Washington State Labor Council’s 2018 COPE Convention, it fell short of the two-thirds majority needed for endorsement.
LOCAL
► In today’s Seattle Times — One job-training program for young adults makes a significant difference, study shows — Participants in the nonprofit program called Year Up — which has a Seattle office — saw a 53 percent increase in the amount of money they earned after they finished the program, and two years later, those who participated continued to do significantly better than those who were in a control group.
► In today’s (Everett) Herald — By export value, Everett’s ‘quiet’ port surpasses Seattle’s — The Port of Everett might not be a heavy-lifter. It ranks third in tonnage per year — behind the Port of Seattle and the Port of Tacoma.But when ranked by export value, it’s a major force in Puget Sound shipping. The Port of Everett’s seaport processed $29 billion worth of exports in 2016. The Port of Seattle processed $22 billion worth that same year.
IMMIGRATION
► In today’s Washington Post — U.S. judge blocks Trump crackdown on asylum seekers, bars blanket detentions of those with persecution claims — A federal judge in Washington on Monday ordered the U.S. government to immediately release or grant hearings to more than 1,000 asylum seekers who have been jailed for months or years without individualized case reviews, dealing a blow to the Trump administration’s crackdown on migrants.
YESTERDAY at The Stand — ‘Labor stands with immigrants and refugees’
► From HuffPost — As health conditions worsen at prison holding 1,000 detainees, staff fears a riot — Staffers at a federal prison complex in Victorville, Calif., where the government recently sent 1,000 immigration detainees despite workers’ concerns about inadequate medical care, are speaking out about worsening conditions as infectious diseases continue to multiply. It’s gotten so bad that staffers are calling the units the two infected groups of detainees are housed in the “chickenpox unit” and “scabies unit,” said AFGE’s John Kostelnik, a case manager at the complex.
► In today’s Washington Post — Trump is making inroads in reducing legal immigration — The number of people receiving visas to move permanently to the United States is on pace to drop 12 percent in President Trump’s first two years in office, according to a Washington Post analysis. Muslim-majority countries on the travel ban list are among the most affected.
► In today’s NY Times — ICE raid leaves an Iowa town divided along faith lines — The detention of 32 workers at a concrete plant opened fissures among Mount Pleasant’s churches and secular leaders.
THAT WASHINGTON
EDITOR’S NOTE — Because nothing “empowers” people quite like denying them food.
EDITOR’S NOTE — How does this guy still have a job?!
NATIONAL
ALSO at The Stand:
Janus ruling is ‘a clarion call to organize like never before’ (June 28)
Wash. State Labor Council: ‘No court decision will stop us’ (June 27)
► From Splinter — AFT President Randi Weingarten has ‘hope in the darkness.’ And also some fear. — Our nation’s teachers unions have had a whiplash of a year, from the statewide teachers’ strikes that have swept the country to last week’s Supreme Court ruling in the Janus v. AFSCME case that could severely hurt their membership. America’s most powerful teachers’ union leader says there is much, much more to come.
TODAY’S MUST-READ
► Twenty-five years ago today, The Entire Staff of The Stand married the love of our life. It remains the best and smartest thing we have ever done and we can’t wait to see what the next 25 years together will bring. (Yes, we’re both working today, but TESOTS is taking the rest of the week off. We’ll be back on Monday, July 9.)
The Stand posts links to Washington state and national news of interest every weekday morning by 10 a.m.